All Bets are Off
by Punzie the Platypus
Summary: Luke is less than pleased when he finds out that, while Lorelai is off at Rory's Yale graduation, Kirk is hosting a booth in the town square. What kind of a booth could this /possibly/ be? It's a betting booth, of course. The bet?—Will Rory accept Logan's marriage proposal or not? Put your bets down now, folks!


_**Soli Deo gloria**_

 **DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own GG. So I just watched the second-to-last episode of the series where Logan proposed to Rory. While I'm still reeling, this takes place during that episode:**

Luke wished that since Kirk had come down from his asinine glass box above the street by his diner, things would go back to normal. Well, normal _was_ a relative term. He'd only hoped that Kirk hadn't moved on to his next stupid thing _too_ quickly.

He wished too soon. Really, he was too hopeful.

That morning was Rory's graduation day; 'most all the regulars were in his diner, grumbling about having no tickets but also EXCITED! for their girl graduating Yale! Luke poured their coffee and got temporarily deaf from being too close to Babette when she shrieked in excited conversation to Miss Patty. Still, as he walked back behind his counter to get the coffee pot, his hearing returned, _and_ he couldn't help smiling to himself. Rory . . . this little girl was graduating from an Ivy League school! Of course she was. As long as Luke had known her, she was smart. She was smart and clever and always reading and adventurous and intelligent and _of course_ she was graduating from Yale.

He wasn't her father, or her stepfather—Lorelai had made sure of that. He sighed to himself as he looked at his coffee pots—all empty—and began to start another batch of the stuff. But he'd been a big part of her life—at least, _he_ thought he was. He'd cheered her on through middle school, high school, and now through college. She'd gone to his diner almost every day for coffee for upwards of ten years, _minimum_. She shared every major event in her life with him—it made him feel a little like a dad to her. Besides April, he wished he had her for a daughter, too.

Well, there were only four seats—for Lorelai, totally, made sense—her grandparents, and despite her grandparents being the insufferable Richard and Emily Gilmore, Luke gave them this—they'd always loved Rory, and she wouldn't have gotten through Yale without them—they made sense too. But then, Christopher? Luke couldn't think of the guy's _name_ without growling. Just—he was her biological father. That was about as much parenting as he'd _ever_ done for his daughter. While, he, Luke, had been there so much more, and actually cared what happened to her, and never just _left_ her—

"Luke! What are you banging around for?" Babette waved a hand to him.

Luke looked up to see Miss Patty worried for his temper. He realized his grip on the coffee pot had made his knuckles white, and he'd banged it against the coffee machine so hard it had hairline fractures spreading through it like blood through veins.

"Luke, are you all right?" Miss Patty asked, concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just fine." Luke put the coffee pot in the trash and shook his head, trying to rid his head of such thoughts. He tried to refocus back into work-mode but he couldn't help overhearing Babette say to Miss Patty, "Let's get going; I don't know how much longer the betting can go on—the results could come any minute!"

Miss Patty gulped down her coffee as Babette grabbed her purse and flung a twenty on the counter; "We gotta go! Hurry, Patty!"

"What's the rush?" Luke wasn't actually interested in the answer until Babette said, "Kirk's got a betting booth on whether or not Rory's going to say yes to Logan's proposal or not!"

The color drained from Luke's face. _NO._ Kirk wasn't _that_ stupid, was he? Luke rolled his eyes. _Of course_ he was.

"You have to get your bets in while the pool is still open!" Miss Patty advised him. She held the door open for Babette as they hurried out.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" Luke yelled at them, but the only answer he received was his front door slamming shut. He huffed and stomped like the big bad wolf out onto the street. A quick look around showed him that Kirk had taken stand near the gazebo. A crooked line of people led to a lemonade stand with a big sign that said _Mrs. Huntzberger or Miss Gilmore_? Kirk and another couple of goonies that usually liked to go along with Taylor plans took bets—Luke was astounded, and horrified. These people making bets—these were Rory's neighbors, her town, her _friends_. Andrew, Morey, Gypsy, Zach— _really_.

Luke used people's shoulders to gain speed as he hurried to the front of the line. "Kirk, what the hell is this?" He regarded the operation with some shocked horror.

"Oh, good morning, Luke. As you can see, my experiment with the glass box has ended," Kirk said primly.

"Yeah, couldn't stand it up that high at night. Scared of the dark, Kirk?" jeered Gypsy, to some laughs.

Kirk continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "I have moved on to the newest cash cow. It is Rory's graduation today, and many speculate that she will give Logan her answer before the day is out. The people are using their own opinions and their money to voice their hope/thought for how her future will turn out."

"This was supposed to be Rory's secret, you know that, right? Who told you about it, Kirk? Who leaked it to the press?" Luke wanted to know.

"Hmm, Luke, you don't seem too surprised by this _sudden_ **secret** news. Were you let in on it before, by someone such as . . . Lorelai?" Kirk wondered.

This elicited several gasps from the crowd behind him, but Luke, despite his ears burning a little red, didn't give in to Kirk's prodding. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that someone told you, and now you've leaked it to the town, so now I wanna know who told you so I can kick their—"

"It was Sookie," Kirk said simply.

Luke looked stunned. "Sookie."

"Yeah. She was bubbling over. She had to tell _someone_."

"And she picked . . . you?"

Kirk waved his hand like it was unbalanced. "It was kind of a right time, right place kind of thing."

Luke rolled his eyes; he couldn't blame _Sookie_. She had pregnancy on the brain, and she also just sucked at keeping secrets, especially _exciting secrets_ , for long. Lorelai might as well have used a director's megahorn to announce Rory's impending marriage proposal at a town meeting.

"Still, that doesn't give _anyone_ a right to be betting on Rory's life like it's a ball game!" Luke held out his hands, shaking. "People don't get to do that! They don't get to bet in a public forum about Rory Gilmore's love life! You know who gets to be the only people who get to worry about Rory's love life? Her and Lorelai! Lorelai Gilmore, basically." He looked over the shoddy craftsmanship of the booth and said, "Kirk, you've reached a new low. You would put up this sweet girl's life choices as entertainment for the town, as a money-making enterprise? No! You don't get to do that, Kirk!" Luke yelled as he pointed a finger. "You don't get to do this to Rory! She's your friend, and this is how you repay her friendship?"

"Luke, I—" Kirk began, kinda seeing a little of his point—

"This is how _all_ of you repay your friendship to her!" Luke turned on the whole crowd. At least some of them had the decency to look ashamed. "Rory Gilmore has been nothing but friendly and kind and supportive to _all_ of you! She's participated in more of this town's events than most of you put together! She deserves better than this!" Suddenly he got zapped of energy. "You know what, what's the point of arguing with you people? You're all stubborn pig-headed lemmings who just do whatever the heck the _town_ wants to do while hurting a precious girl's feelings; her feelings and privacy don't _matter_ , right? It's a town event, this is obviously a _town_ affair, and whenever the town wants to do something, the town just _does_ it, _doesn't it_?" He stormed away, snapping in Miss Patty's face, "Was this at least cleared at the town meeting first? Did we have the budget? _Apparently._ "

He stormed away. Everyone else looked at each other in confusion; they hadn't thought they were doing _wrong_. They were voicing their opinions, talking with neighbors, feeling the excitement—maybe their Rory would be getting married! Luke's low opinion of them piled together with his sound logic and exposure of their badly executed jobs as Rory's friends brought their merriment down a few good notches.

Kirk looked down at the betting pools. "For what it's worth," he said, muttering, "'No' is winning." He looked back at the piles of pink and blue ribbons from the whole Luke vs Lorelai thing he'd resurrected for no good reason other than to have them there for the sake of having them in his back pocket.

Luke didn't know if they'd listen to him; he didn't know if they'd stop. He . . . he couldn't call Lorelai. They were still in a weird rut. But he was sick and tired of all those people—to Rory? Really? This was one of the biggest decisions of her life, and they were _betting_ on it?

Luke didn't know what to do—so he went in the wrong direction. He went insane. He went to Taylor's candy ice cream shoppe to talk to Taylor.

"Taylor!" he yelled, slamming the door as he hurried in.

"Oh, Luke. How nice to see you. Yes, why don't you just _waltz_ in and destroy my property?" Taylor said sarcastically.

Luke walked straight up to the counter. "Taylor, the whole town is suddenly acting like they all got dropped on their heads as babies."

Taylor rolled his eyes. " _Really_ , Luke, that's absurd language. What have they done now? It _can't_ be as bad as you say it is."

Luke pointed a finger to outside the glass. "Out there in the town square Kirk is playing bookie to the entire town, and guess what they're betting on?"

"Whether or not Rory will marry Logan what's-his-face?" Taylor said nonchalantly.

Luke sighed and banged the counter. "Dammit, Sookie!"

"Luke, _please_. My customers are eating. If you're going to use that kind of language, you can take it outside."

"Sure, and I'll take _you_ with me."

"Whatever for?"

Luke wrestled with his pride and ended up knocking it flat to the ground with a single punch. "Taylor, I need you to go outside and _make_ them stop the bets."

"How do you expect me to do _that_ , Luke? It's a peaceful gathering, as far as I can tell."

"Taylor, you can't do this to me, not now! Every other day of your life you're spitting out stupid bylaws and subsidies and charters and stuff that no one else can remember prohibiting people from doing stuff! Isn't there some kind of law against gambling in Connecticut?"

"There's no prohibition against gambling and betting in the state of Connecticut, as long as they're not minors!"

"Okay, boot out some minors, then!"

"Luke, are you all right? You've gotten yourself _so_ worked up—maybe you should just lie down for a while, take some medicine. Have you seen a doctor lately?"

"Since when have you decided to take a genuine concern in my health? Knock it off, Taylor, and fix this! Kirk probably needed a permit or something to erect that booth—boot him out!"

"I can't."

Luke could've had steam pouring out of his ears. "Why do you mean you _can't_? Every other day of the year you've been doing it!"

"I have to take inventory of my syrups and sprinkles and place an order. I suppose, if I still have time when I'm done, and I'm not saying I will, I could go and take a look-see at what's going on—"

Luke grabbed a chair and held it two inches from Taylor's front window. "Taylor, go out there."

Taylor turned as white as a sheet. "What are you doing—!?"

"It was your fault _my_ front window was destroyed. I'm thinking about repaying the favor."

"Are you _threatening_ me?"

"No, _repaying_. I think the dictionary gives it a different meaning that's not _threatening_ ," said Luke in a _totally_ -not-threatening voice.

Taylor sighed, and, putting down his clipboard, mumbled to himself as he went to the front square. Luke put down the chair and followed him.

They stood on the curb, looking at a mostly empty square. Luke looked surprised and a little uncomfortable as he and Taylor watched the crowds spread thinly over the streets, dispersing with little more than a few conversations.

Taylor gave Luke a look before he approached Kirk's booth. Luke joined him reluctantly.

"Kirk, what's this all about?" Taylor asked. Kirk's crew was busy disassembling the booth.

"All bets are off. People's memories came back and they felt horrible about betting against Rory. I include myself among that number." Kirk looked ruefully at Luke. Luke gave him an approving nod back.

Taylor swiveled around. "Well, I see there is nothing here skirting the legality of our town's laws. Now, if you'll excuse me, Luke, _I_ have to get back to my business." He called over his shoulder just as Luke had relaxed a little, "And don't think that I'll forget that threat!"

Luke was left alone for two seconds before Miss Patty and Babette and Morey passed by him. "Luke, you were right. We were having too much fun at Rory's expense," Miss Patty said repentantly.

"See, this is what happens when you gossip for too long: you don't know when you've gone too far. I'm sorry, we all are," Babette said. Morey nodded. She took Luke's arm and shook it affectionately. "Thanks for remaining sane among us, Luke."

"Ah, it's . . . no problem," Luke sighed. He blinked as he felt Babette's grip grow stronger.

"Wow, your arm's thick. Do you work out?"

"I-I," Luke said, pointing his thumb past him, "I should get back to the diner."

"Of course, of course. Bye, Luke!" Luke could hear her whisper behind her hand to Miss Patty as he hurried back to the diner, "All those years of flipping pancakes and handling frying pans really paid off!"

He was in better spirits back where he was comfortable. He answered the phone to hear an apologetic Sookie apologize about a thousand times; the only way he could calm her down was to make a pact with her to make sure the town _never_ let Lorelai or Rory find out about this. Sookie gulped and solemnly agreed and Luke ended the phone call with her brought down from excessive hysteria.

As he hung the phone on the wall, he breathed. He felt better. He felt _relieved_. He wasn't at Rory's graduation right now, but he was making sure she wasn't defenseless while she was gone, even from some usually-well-meaning neighbors. He wouldn't let them hurt her like that.

He wasn't her dad, but he'd protect her like he was.

 **Thanks for reading! Review?**


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